Girl gets probation in beating posted on YouTube

One of two teenage girls charged last year in an attack on a 13-year old girl in a Lombard park that was recorded and posted on YouTube was sentenced today to two years probation.

The defendant, 13, who is a high school freshman in Wisconsin, pleaded guilty in December to aggravated battery and faced up to 5 years in a state juvenile detention facility

She was also sentenced to 50 hours community service.

Before being sentenced, she told the judge while sobbing: "I'm so sorry for what I have done. I deserve to be punished for what I did. There's no excuse. There's no reason I should have done what I did."

The girl admitted to hitting and punching the victim as she lay on the ground on July 3, at the Taste of Lombard festival at Madison Meadow Park.

The other defendant, now a high school freshman, admitted that she screamed at the victim, a former friend, and pushed her to the ground. She pleaded guilty earlier this month to mob action and will be sentenced next month.

The video, which was removed by YouTube after the victim's mother found out about it and notified police, was played in court today. It shows a crowd of teenagers watching and cheering as the defendant punches the victim, who is on the ground covering her face.

The defendant told police she punched the victim between 20 and 30 times then "blacked out," Lombard Police Det. Janet Myerson told the judge. At one point in the video, the defendant stops punching the victim, turns back to the video camera and smiles at the person who is recording, Myerson said.

The victim received bumps and bruises in the attack, but didn't require hospitalization.

"I feel very badly and feel sorry for what happened," Riggs said to the victim. "That should not happen in civilized society."

The victim, an 8th grader, attended the hearing today with her mother.

In a statement read to the judge by her mother, the victim said she is having difficulty trusting people and "I do not feel any sense of security anymore."

"I always feel like someone is behind me," she said. She said she was "confused that someone I did not know could attack me like this."

"I feel so ashamed and embarrassed not just because I was attacked but because the video was posted on the Internet," she said.

After the hearing, her mother said she was disappointed by the sentence.

"I'm really upset (the defendant) didn't get time in juvenile detention," she said. "Two years probation to me is kind of like a slap on the hand."

Assistant State's Attorney Nancy Wilson told Riggs that the defendant had been previously charged with battery in a case that was "eerily similar," in which she grabbed another girl by the hair and repeatedly punched her while on video.

The fact that the two defendants planned the fight minutes before "is even more shocking and is what makes this crime even more disturbing," Wilson said.

Assistant Public Defender Garrett Ard told the judge it was not his client's idea to post the video on the Internet, but said the incident "isn't something she's proud of" and "is something she deeply regrets."